Midwives fear for future

Press, 21 July 1984, Page 9

Midwives fear for future

Midwives are concerned that their specialised skills may be lost to the community because of the "policy” of the New Zealand Nurses’ Association. At yesterday’s, opening of the annual two-day seminar for midwives in the association’s Canterbury Westland branch, members were dissatisfied with the response from the association's executive officer, Miss Patricia Carroll.

They felt that the association was giving inadequate training for a “unique and specialised role within the health team” and that their future was in jeopardy because of it.

The six month midwifery course was removed from * hospitals and incorporated in the diploma of nursing course at technical institiutes about five years ago.

A remit by the midwives’ section to the association’s conference in 1980, for more extensive training in that area, was adopted. It sought , provision for. a separate midwifery course leading to

registration, and ’ an . advanced diploma course for midwives. Members of the branch’s midwives section argued in Christchurch yesterday that this remit had not been carried out. Miss Carroll told the 70 women that the Health Department did not accept there was a need for such a change. She assured them that their role in obstetrics would not be lost.

Members were unhappy that the -quality of midwifery education, including clinical experience, was not up to standard and that fewer midwives were being registered. A spokeswoman for the group said that questions to Miss Carroll about their concerns had been evaded. They had been facing this problem since 1979, she said. There was a strong feeling of resentment among members that the association acted on decisions concerning their future without fully consulting them, another midwife said.